This is probably the weirdest article I’ve ever written, especially considering I haven’t even written a retrospective about Lost Boys yet, and how it fundamentally pushed my love of vampires to the extreme that it is. However, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t shed a spotlight on one of my favourite characters in the film despite her barely having any lines and only being in it for about 4 minutes in total (I KNOW, I was shell shocked too). Star was such an important character to me that I could have sworn she was in the movie for way longer and had way more of an impact than she ended up having. I remember after seeing Lost Boys, every year during our family shore trip, when we went to the boardwalk I was closet cosplaying Star. I thought she was the definition of cool and artsy and I wanted to be just like her. I thought she was sensitive but smart, and she was clearly brave — she fucking stole their bikes at one point to go talk to Michael on her own. I loved everything about Star, or what I imagined was there. Because when you sit down and watch the movie, despite how cool and fun it is, Star is actually really under-utilized and mostly exists for Michael to yell at and David to use as a pawn.
Yet also because of her limited use, Star pretty much is intrinsically tied to both of those characters. Which, yikes.
I will admit I’m a little biased when it comes to the ships here…I do prefer David and Star over Michael and Star. A lot of this is because any relationship David and Star had or have exists entirely offscreen, so it’s easier to project onto and assume it was better than the…”relationship” she has with Michael. So when I was reading fanfiction, it was a lot easier to find these fics, and to believe David and Star had a healthier dynamic because I had nothing really to prove otherwise. Like yeah, he was an asshole now, but maybe that was because of Max. Maybe it used to be better — like I have to assume she’s there for David, and Laddie’s there to keep Star around. I’ve never been able to afford that gajillion dollar Lost Boys book with all the canon lore in it, so I’m pretty undisturbed in my head canons that David and Star were star crossed lovers but things went south.
I love Michael for about the first ten minutes of the movie, and then his character speed runs going downhill like I have never seen. I don’t like how he’s physically always shaking Star, I don’t like that he yells at her for things he did THAT SHE TOLD HIM NOT TO DO. I hate that she blames herself for what happened to him when it’s just really the result of a pissing contest and was also Max’s grand plan anyway. But even with all of that being said, I can understand Michael is essentially going through a body horror transformation because of a girl he simply thought was pretty, so maybe I wouldn’t be in a great headspace either.
Yet as an adult rewatching Lost Boys, I can’t help but to be disappointed that…this is Star’s life? Choosing between two guys who frankly are exceedingly underwhelming and frankly, more into each other than they are into her. It’s so exceptionally bizarre that the character of Star who is the catalyst for all of this is so quickly tossed aside and punished when she didn’t really do anything but is gaslit into thinking this is all her fault. She’s a tragic character and one that is compelling because Jami Gertz breathes such life into a small role. Star is someone who has seen the horrors of the world ten times over and it’s conveyed through Gertz’ eyes alone. She is soft spoken and broken, and even in her attempts to convince Michael there’s still time for him she is just so defeated by everything, clearly an optimist that’s been quashed by the realities of the life she’s been thrown into. But no one comforts Star, no one is there for her, she has to just keep pushing herself through it and it’s pretty much only for Laddie’s benefit. Every time she opens up about her struggles, she is immediately dismissed. Her character is Helen of Troy amped up to a thousand and to watch them just forget about her is heartbreaking, especially when I know so many women and femme people who not only relate to Star but genuinely love her so much. In her four minutes of screen time, she is somehow fully conveying something that so many of us relate to.
And then her wrap up is basically saying like, yeah, she’s horrified David’s dead (BUT I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO SHIP THEM OK) but she’s not a vampire anymore. She can be with Michael. YAY!!11!1!!
That is so unsatisfying on a foundational level. No one, who I know anyway, who considers themselves a Star girly ships her with Michael. And I am one of few who ships her with David because I had that toxic ship era in my life and I’m just now barely growing out of it.
But the bottom line is watching this tragic figure be pushed around by men eventually end up with one of these men is so gross and lame. Star should have ended up single. She deserved a life away from everyone where she could heal and be herself and gain some of the light back in her life. Granted that could have happened once the screen cuts to black and Echo and the Bunnymen start strumming away. I would find it difficult to believe that Star could stay with Michael not due to any fault of his own but just because what would they have to connect with? Star can’t just pick up where she left off, what with the implication she’s been a vampire for at least twenty years (again, I don’t have the book so this is based on 20 years of me head canoning shit). She can’t be normal, and having audiences just accept that she can hug Michael and start over with him is so…goofy and unrealistic. I hate Star’s ending.
I hate Star’s lack of existence in this movie. If she’s not being screamed at by Michael, she’s taking care of Laddie, or being used by David — Star’s whole existence revolves around the men in her life and never anything outside of that. To have her resolution be that her life continues to be about these men is just not something she deserves. And again, I know I’m reading too much into it, but I also know Lost Boys 2 exists and those characters are Michael and Star’s KIDS SO YEAH, I KNOW SHE NEVER GETS AWAY.
Lost Boys being set on a beach is perfect because Star has all the same tragedies of a mermaid or a selkie, some other sea creature tied inherently to the desires of men and almost nothing else. When a mermaid dares to care about a man, their repayment is getting scorned and turning into sea foam. The only way men can marry selkies is by hiding their seal skin and forcing them to have children. I know my love of Star is based a lot on projections, but the movie gives me little else to work with and Jami Gertz is playing Star on a whole new level the film frankly doesn’t deserve.
While I love this movie, I love Star more, and I wish there was more focus on her in general. While I hate remakes for the most part, I would love to see something about Star Wide Sargasso Sea style, which is the re-telling of Jane Eyre through the locked up wife’s perspective. I want Star to have an ending somewhere far away from all of these people, somewhere she can just flourish into the character I know Gertz was playing the whole time.